Marina Park Plans Gain County Council Support

November 22, 1985|By Rick Tonyan of The Sentinel Staff

DELAND — More than $750,000 will be spent to develop a park that the Ponce de Leon Inlet Port Authority wants to build, Volusia County Council members decided Thursday as some of them added they are beginning to support the authority's plans for a marina.

Council members endorsed the authority's recommendation that a $757,497 contract be awarded to Frank E. Flagg Construction Co., Holly Hill, to develop 55 acres of the park on the north side of Ponce de Leon Inlet.

The contract calls for the company to build roads, parking areas, nature trails, boardwalks, walkovers across sand dunes, picnic areas, an observation tower and restrooms. Work is to be finished in October.

Almost $175,000 of the money is from a federal grant the port authority received before the council took over the once-independent taxing agency last month. The rest of the money comes from a cash reserve the authority established to pay for the project.

For a year council members have talked about taking over the authority and possibly changing its plans to develop parks and build the marina. The authority, which for decades has levied property taxes to support its work, has about $9 million in bank accounts.

Several council members say they may want to use some of that money for such projects as buying land for parking lots and preparing to eventually remove cars from the county's beaches.

Most of the authority's money would be committed to building and maintaining the marina. Florida Sun International, a real estate investment firm, has offered to help develop and then operate the marina.

In June county finance director Al Gault warned that the marina would cost the county about twice as much to develop than the money it would receive in lease payments from the firm.

But Gault said Thursday the firm is revising its offer and the county may be able to produce money over the 50-year period of the proposed lease. Gault's optimism led some council members to revise their earlier criticism.

For years environmentalists have warned that developing the marina would damage marshlands by the inlet between New Smyrna Beach and Ponce Inlet. Opponents of the project lobbied with the council for the county takeover of the authority.